Email Etiquette

Hi All,

I'm going to post this email on all my course blogs because I've had a little something on my mind for a while.

I am getting a number of emails sent to the ewcwriter account that strike me as being "dashed off." When writing to your friends it is perfectly acceptable to write however you like and to take whatever shortcuts you wish. When emailing people in a more professional sense such as teachers, professors, business and government people, you should use the best possible standard of writing that you can manage.

In the same way that we make assumptions about people based on their clothes, their hair or their grooming habits, people who receive your emails will make assumptions based on what they can see. Not using capital letters, punctuation or spellchecking your email can suggest either a lack of skill or a lack of concern. Neither is the impression that you want to leave in the mind of the person who will be assigning you a final grade.

I'm not suggesting that our email communications have to be perfect, they just have to be the best of which we are capable of writing. I catch problems every time I compose an email by rereading it 2 or 3 times. Sometimes I'll read it even more than that if I am writing to my bosses

By all means, I invite you to comment on this.

Regards, CP